L'ITALIE Au Moyen-age Veme-xveme Siecle

Auteur(s) : Isabelle Heullant-Donat, Jean-Pierre DelumeauGenre : Histoireune synthèse, rarement tentée avec cette ampleur chronologique en langue française, qui traite non seulement de l'histoire politique de l'Italie médiévale, divisée entre de multiples Etats, mais également des phénomènes économiques, sociaux et culturels à l'oeuvre dans l'ensemble de la péninsule.
Italy In The Middle Ages, From The 5th To The 15th Century From the book's own synopsis: 'Even if a few of their famous names or episodes are more or less widely known, the Italian Middle Ages tend to linger shamefacedly between the heights of Roman antiquity and those of the Renaissance.
A considerable political and cultural diversity, and the host of questions raised by its construction, do not facilitate discussion of the era as a whole.
This diversity is nevertheless a common element to vast tracts of medieval Italy, taking in the memory of ancient Rome, a ubiquitous urbanization in the North and centre, a certain pluriculturalism in the south, even unto the constant presence of the Popes.
'The work at hand considers respectively the influence of Rome and the Carolingians; the initiatives from the 11th to the 13th century for urban autonomy and monarchic reconstruction; the evolution of the communal system through the 13th and 14th centuries; the precarious political equilibrium installed in the 15th century; and, finally, the economic, social, and cultural mutations provoked by the last two centuries of the Middle Ages.
This synthesis accordingly fills a gap, in attempting to highlight the 'original characters' of Italy in the course of European medieval history.
' Each chapter concludes with a period primary source and glossary, bibliography, and genealogical charts appear as appendices.
The Authors Of the first eight of 16 chapters: Jean-Pierre Delumeau, professor of medieval history at the University of Rennes.
Specializing in Italy, his notable work is 'Arezzo, Spaces and Societies, 715 - 1230' (French Scool of Rome; 1966).
Of the second eight: Isabelle Heullant-Donat, graduate of the Ecole normale supérieure of Fontenay-Saint-Cloud and of the French School of Rome, lecturer in medieval history at the University of Paris X-nanterre.
She is the author of 'Italian Cultures, from the 12th Century to the 15th' (Paris, éditions du Cerf, 2000).